You can make almost anything at a TechShop, a fast-growing chain of co-working spaces that stock industrial water-jet cutters and 3-D printers and every other high-tech tool imaginable. But what the shops really produce are entrepreneurs and economic impact.

Party with a purpose: TechShop in Bakery Square hosted more than 300 guests at its 21-plus night on Thursday to encourage people around the community to come and explore all that TechShop has to offer.

We then connected the teachers—one at an elementary school in rural Alabama, one at a high school near Detroit—with makers whose skills matched the projects.... Twenty-four craftspeople (from TechShop, the national makerspace chain, and Foomatic Makerspace in Montgomery, Alabama) volunteered to build exactly what the students needed.

One of the most prized aspects of TechShop, and the maker movement generally, is the variety of people and backgrounds that get involved. This has created a community and that is where [TechShop CE0 Mark] Hatch really places value in what he does ... "It is not about the tools, it is about the people who show up to use them," he said.

Maker Media, Inc. -- which produces Make: magazine and Maker Faire -- has cultivated makerspaces and has been a key catalyst in what has come to be known as the maker movement. Just one year after garnering enough interest from the first Maker Faire in 2005, the first open-access public workshop, called TechShop, opened in Menlo Park, California.

It’s called TechShop in Bakery Square — and if that sounds familiar — President Obama was there last June to celebrate people who make things. Now, Gov. Tom Wolf toured the shop to promote his commitment to jobs that pay.

While many small unconnected groups have been moving in this direction for a long time, the TechShop movement represents a more sophisticated approach ... And while many members might be there to pursue hobbies or personal interests ... [t]here are people making serious money from TechShop-based businesses.

The brothers’ entrepreneurial savvy is a mixture of genetics, do-it-yourself spirit, and a willingness to learn from the other “makers” and entrepreneurs based at TechShop, a breeding ground for tinkerers and techies.

TechShop DC in Crystal City is a fully-equipped workshop where participants undertake their own building projects using modern tools which are shared among members ... Once Zealand made contact, several members of TechShop DC made a commitment to design and build all-weather bookcases.

The movement has exploded in the past several years, thanks to an increased availability of technological tools, from 3-D printing to online crowdfunding platforms to member-based workshops like TechShop, which provides makers with access to workspace, software and professional equipment.

Another building transformed by the tech economy is the LA Mart, a longtime center for trade that in recent years added a creative space for tech and design companies ... Over the next few months, TechShop — a chain of member-based workshops that provides access to tools, training and space — plans to build out a 20,000-square-foot facility there.

If you’re hiring the right people, they’re going to be curious ... If one of our developers is interested in learning a new programming language, I’ll pay for classes. We wound up implementing some hardware ideas that an employee dreamed up at TechShop. Let your employees get out there and play in the sandbox...

And last month, civic leaders scored a coup when it was announced that St. Louis would become, in 2016, the latest home for a TechShop — a do-it-yourself "maker shop", designed to let people of varying skill levels gain access to industrial tools, equipment and technology.

This particular expansion for TechShop marks a significant landmark not just for the organization, but for the Maker Movement as a whole ... TechShop’s expansion beyond the United States signals the increasing significance of making and its effect on the overall global ethos.

A panel of Metro Detroit venture capitalists chose Vayu as the winner of the first Hardware Cup, a innovation competition hosted by Tech Shop Detroit. Six start-ups presented their products for four minutes in the hopes of being chosen to compete at the national level.

For thousands of babies born too early to regulate their own body temperature, the Embrace Warmer blanket has been a lifesaver. And part of the product's effectiveness is the improvements made on the technology at TechShop ...

...Other experiments, such as the Ford-TechShop partnership in Detroit and a similar build-out with BMW in Berlin, are providing more opportunities to discover what happens when community members and corporate employees are given access to equipment and space to explore, invent, and interact with each other outside the normal confines of the workplace.

TechShop, a chain of low-cost factory spaces with high tech tools, gives makers and hackers the opportunity to create prototypes and experimental product lines. Designed to spark collaborations, we hear how ideas come to life together.

Program director Cody McCabe says that it's simpler and cheaper to take the makerspace to students than transport students to a workshop to have access to these tools ... TechShop Inside [can] be used as part of an educator's existing curriculum, to supplement a curriculum, or as an extracurricular offering at schools and libraries.

On any given day at TechShop in San Jose, you're liable to find inventors using the equipment there to build their drones, crowd-funded gadgets or advanced robots ... The creative community of TechShop folks fosters not only business connections but product innovations and shared learning.

Companies like MakerBot, TechShop and Kickstarter are playing a large part in fixing the breakdown between historical industrialized employment and manufacturing models, which people still depend on for work, and the more flat and networked world in which we now live.

Members of TechShop use high-tech equipment to develop and produce ideas they have for inventions. Members are able to use costly machines including 3D modeling tools and laser cutters. Membership costs for TechShop start at just over $100 per month.

The project, expected to be completed in July 2016, will house equipment and classes for amateur and professional inventors. Memberships cost $1,300 annually or can be paid each month. The St. Louis TechShop location already has about 500 memberships secured, with some coming from Washington University and Monsanto.

In St. Louis, TechShop will occupy the first floor of a three-story building to be constructed at the southeast corner of Forest Park and Boyle avenues ... The new building, estimated to cost $23.9 million, should open by fall 2016.

Cortex has worked hard to bring the company to St. Louis, helping raise $3 million in capital and recruiting membership commitments. Already in eight other cities, TechShop provides space, industrial equipment and classes for both amateur and professional inventors.

TechShop is one of the birthplaces of the "Maker movement", a do-it-yourself, tinkering renaissance that is sweeping northern California and Europe. Visitors can request a free tour to see the machinery, including 3D printers and a metal shop (every half hour, from noon to 9 p.m.).

When you think about the possibilities available when you combine crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo, along with the tech incubators/workshops like TechShop, and the viral marketing/advertising efforts now possible with social media, you realize we really are on the cusp of what could be a very exciting new era.

She came up with the idea for a brainstorming-and-prototyping day at TechShop, a “maker space” in suburban Virginia, where teams of health experts, engineers and designers worked on improving protective suits for health workers fighting the Ebola virus.

In 2012, Ford's then CEO Alan Mulally tied up with TechShop ... to set up a giant "innovation playground" in Detroit where Ford's employees can tinker with 3D printers and other do-it-yourself technologies and rapidly convert their ideas into prototypes. By empowering engineers to develop breakthrough ideas in an unstructured environment ... Ford has increased its patentable ideas by over 100 percent without spending more on R&D.

Inside TechShop’s office in San Francisco’s South of Market neighborhood, there is a red phone and a green phone. The red one is a direct line to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The green one goes to the U.S. Department of Commerce ... tactile reminders of TechShop’s mission: to help entrepreneurs go from prototype to patent as easily as possible.

Techshop has defined community as a powerful force in innovation and Carrie [Motamedi,head of Marketing and Company Culture at TechShop] speaks to what that looks like in practice. Watch Carrie’s talk to find out how access and community is integral for people to succeed.

The programme is looking for start-ups with innovative ideas from the automotive sector. In addition to intensive expert support from UnternehmerTUM coaches, BMW Group mentors and outstanding business personalities, the teams will also be provided with office rooms, access to the high-tech prototype workshop ‘TechShop’ and a development budget of 25,000 euros.

#2. TechShop ... Under the leadership of CEO Mark Hatch, the company saw revenue grow 778 percent to $10 million in 2013 from $1.1 million in 2010. Clocking in at 611 in 2014, this year marks TechShop's second time on the Inc. 5000.

It's called TechShop Inside, and it's a 24-foot trailer outfitted with laser cutting machines, 3D printers and an arsenal of traditional tools. Its mission? Teach America's students how to design, prototype and manufacture their dreams.

That's another thing you're going to find at TechShop: Classes to teach you what you need to know – and what they need you to know before letting you loose on the hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of equipment stationed in the clean, well-organized, and brightly lit space ... just off I-35 in Round Rock.

One way Round Rock manufacturers are getting started is by foregoing the traditional workspace altogether. At TechShop Austin-Round Rock, located in Round Rock, entrepreneurs and hobbyists can pay a membership fee and have access to the high-end tools other operations paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to acquire.

The team did not have any background in manufacturing and had never built a factory. Buckley spent a short time training to run a CNC machine at TechShop, a chain of public access workshops in San Francisco ... When DODOcase brought in a reported $1 million in sales in 90 days, Buckley and his partners kicked up the manufacturing process.

The BBC has reported that the 13-year-old from San Jose has caught the eye of Intel, no less, which has invested in the Braigo project ... [according to Shubha Banerjee,] "I got membership at the TechShop in San Jose to learn design tools, worked with other individuals to get 3D printed mechanical parts and also [a] machinist to design new Braille heads and assembly.”

Since openings its doors earlier this year, TechShop DC-Arlington in Crystal City, VA has become an invaluable resource to those in the DC region hoping to get engaged in the Maker Movement ... “TechShop helps bring makers together at a centralized location,” said Saale. Without it, the community would continue to consist of disparate workshops that flew under the radar.”

Atkins joined TechShop DC-Arlington this past June and has since launched a customization company called 3205 Customs. For someone who is still in high school, getting involved in TechShop has really paid off for him.

TechShop is an example of a sustainable business model of the concept of fablab and maker space, where access to the fabrication equipment and mentorship is offered for a fee. TechShop has developed partnerships with universities ... or companies ... to develop ad hoc facilities for internal research and development.

TechShop Membership and Gifts: If your tech geek lives in or near San Carlos, CA; San Francisco, CA; San Jose, CA; Allen Park, MI; ... Pittsburgh, PA; Chandler, AZ; or Arlington, VA, they can use the gift of a TechShop membership. A membership would gain your techy access to a wide range of equipment and classes at the TechShop locations.

With the gradual increase of resources like TechShop and new interest in manufacturing, the Maker Movement in America is quickly becoming a prominent, defining feature of this century (remember the White House Maker Faire?).

The flashy in-home fabrication system which Hiro uses to fabricate Baymax's suit is a next-generation version of the popular 3D printer, which the directors encountered during a visit to the maker utopia TechShop in San Francisco.

And while rapid prototyping may be the most game-changing business-related application of the TechShop, allowing for iteration after iteration in hours as opposed to days and weeks in some cases, the organic, grassroots spirit of the Maker Movement still permeates the facility.

In August, five students graduated from the Learning Shelter’s first 90-day educational program, which includes TechShop classes and mentorship opportunities. The group explored Google’s collaborative workshop, Google Garage, and traveled behind ...

As Hatch tells us in his Big Think interview, TechShop has been the birthplace of numerous and myriad inventions including the world's fastest electric motorcycle, the very first Square devices, and the life-saving Embrace Warmer infant blanket.

[C]onsumers of products that were created at TechShop even include President Obama, who thinks innovation is the first step to the future and that TechShop is giving ordinary people the tools they need to turn their ideas into reality.

Massdrop helped them fabricate prototypes from cardboard to actual circuit boards at San Francisco's TechShop—and built a layout configuration program that lets buyers easily customize their boards online.

Starting this semester, full-time ASU students may get free membership to TechShop and $100 credit for TechShop's training workshops. Within a month of the announcement, more than 350 ASU students activated a TechShop membership, according to the spokesman.

I saw this new economy at Pittsburgh’s TechShop, one in a chain of community centers where members get access to professional tools, equipment, and software, as well as the space they need to make or design or prototype almost anything?—?for the same price you’d pay for a gym membership.

“It’s National Manufacturing Day and it's really great to see the innovation here -- it’s a terrific facility,” said Frank Kendall, the undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics, during his tour ... after[wards], Kendall likened the TechShop idea to the Institutes for Manufacturing Innovation announced beginning in February.

Learn by experimenting in low-cost and iterative ways.... TechShop, a spinoff of Maker Faire, is an example of a new class of facilities for entrepreneurs to start experimenting early. Success is when both you and your new partners learn how to make money while experiencing new growth from the initiative.

As you might expect, TechShop CEO and co-founder Mark Hatch is an early adopter of 3-D printing technology. But he still wasn't prepared for his wife's emotional reaction to the "ugly, lime-green plastic rose" he created to test his new unit.

The project quickly evolved to include welding shelves and benches, and pouring cement for the coffee bar. Day after day, they shuttled back and forth between the construction site and TechShop, a Crystal City workshop full of power tools.

David, Scott, Ollie, and Mike met at TechShop Pittsburgh when it first opened in March 2013. They all came from different backgrounds, using the resources at TechShop for all sorts of different projects, but what brought them together was an exciting idea Ollie hatched: making a laser cutter that you can bring anywhere.

(Part of the TechCrunch Makers series, this five-minute video includes a walking interview with TechShop CEO Mark Hatch; a tour of TechShop San Francisco; footage of various equipment, tools and members working on projects; footage of TechShop partners and members (DODOcase, Lumio, National Instruments) and more.)

The shelter’s 2014 pilot program, headquartered at San Francisco’s TechShop, a community-run studio that offers classes and industrial tech equipment, included five students who attended 15 classes each.

We visited TechShop; there, we experimented with miniature 3D modeling, as well as the Autodesk offices in San Francisco. Those visits really blew my mind as I realized the broad possibilities of use and the impact 3D printing could have in many different sectors.

The university has signed a memorandum of understanding with TechShop that will see the university provide space to locate on its grounds. “We believe it will be a huge catalyst for innovation and the whole start-up ecosystem in Ireland by having this located here."

TechShop is offering complimentary memberships at its Chandler location to ASU students for the fall 2014 semester. Any full-time undergraduate or graduate students, including online students, are eligible for the complimentary memberships.

Pittsburgh is clearly at the forefront of what has become a national movement.... Amazing community resources — “maker gyms,” like TechShop Pittsburgh in Bakery Square and AlphaLab Gear for hardware entrepreneurs — are loaded with tools, machines and expert guides to support amateur craftspersons and tinkerers of all ages.

What do people really do at TechShop? There are a group of makers who show up with a pretty clear idea of what they want to do.... Often it has some practical or commercial application, and they lack a place where they could develop their idea into something real. Others show up and ... want to learn how to use the tools ...

Now, local corporations such as Facebook, Apple, Google, Samsung and Tesla provide employees with memberships to use TechShop facilities. Instead of being cooped up alone or with a select few in an office, TechShop users grow through a collaborative and inspirational environment ...

“Makerspaces like TechShop are important places for collaboration and community-building that breed new ways products are designed, prototyped and manufactured and a new way of thinking that can benefit our communities and the city,” Nath said.

One new initiative, the VA-TechShop Partnership, is a pilot program with a chain of Silicon Valley fabrication laboratories. The hope is that veterans with mechanical engineering skills may be able to invent new products or start a manufacturing business with access to high-tech fabrication tools.

Makerspaces (a.k.a. “hackerspaces”, “DIY spaces”) are arguably the main contributors to the democratization of manufacturing. These are places like TechShop ... that provide facilities, equipment and training to the general public, allowing inventors to develop and prototype their ideas.

Gyre worked with TechShop staff to develop the week-long Drum Makers workshop, which he said teaches kids a wide range of skills. “You’ve gotta learn two dimensional design," he said. "You’ve gotta have a concept of three-dimensional design. You have to learn a little bit of basic vector work, a little bit of basic machine tooling, and then you get to use the CNC, you get to use the laser, you get to use your hands, and at the end of it you get to play music.”

"What a lot of folks don't understand is that we have real innovations coming out of these spaces that are worth billions of dollars, that are saving lives and changing the world," says TechShop's Hatch. "And we've only just started."

Back in San Francisco, fellows Shantanu Bala and Kaushik Tiwari visit the community workshop and prototyping studio TechShop. As they tour the space and check out equipment, Shantanu develops new ideas that he can apply to his project of building new computer interfaces that use a sense of touch to get information.